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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (212014)	12/18/2012 9:32:14 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541108

If guns made a country safe, we should be the safest country on Earth. Now, because we have too many guns, your answer to the problem is more guns. There's an irony there. I'm sure your son's a great guy, but most teachers are teachers because they aren't really drawn to things like police work. Would they shoot someone to defend their students? Yeah, probably. But is that really necessary? I mean with that logic, every workplace in America ought to have a gun in it. And of course, some nuts would be saying "Right on". But that's a crazy way to live, and most people aren't actually looking forward to living in armed camps. And don't get me started on what would happen the first time a teacher or administrator went nuts and shot up the school (or a student got the school gun)- and don't tell me that won't happen. If we wanted to live in arm camps, there are certainly places we could move to. I'd rather not live in one, or work in one.

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (212014)	12/18/2012 10:00:30 AM
From: cosmicforce	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541108

I think the skills to be a teacher or educational administrator are different than those of law enforcement. I don't think you can effectively cross-train them with a rare exception. The Perry proposal in TX will fail because there will eventually some problem where an armed teacher goes nuts. Or the weapon will be stolen and used in a crime or against another student. As I sit here listening to the local news - I am listening to a repetition that is causing copy cat inspired threats in the Bay Area. I bet this is happening countrywide at such a level that it is not making the national coverage. This is insane. We are obsessed.

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (212014)	12/18/2012 10:35:52 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541108

So why not have a gun available in that dire strait where it might be the only way of stopping a slaughter? Best I can tell from your post, Ed, you've conflated two proposals. The first is to arm the teachers/administrators or select ones; the second is to have an armed guard or two in the schools. The first strikes me as not only unhelpful but dangerous. While most teachers are good at what they do and care for their students, there are not so stable ones. Something that's characteristic of any large population. And it will be the case despite the best intentioned screening processes. On that same point, having one gun available for a selected administrator is not likely to work since it takes time to get to the safe, where presumably it's stored, etc. Moreover, the sight of armed teachers and administrators conveys precisely the wrong image. As for the second, an armed guard in the schools, I understand that the general population of parents are more comfortable with that idea than in past years. Lots of water under lots of bridges. But, if it were to come to pass, it would have to be rethought very carefully. There are lots of moving parts to such a proposal. You can't just say we should have such and think it would be well implemented. My own preference, and you are aware of it, is not to increase the availability of guns but to reduce it. And I would do so dramatically if I were in a position to do so. We need, however, to think very carefully about how to handle the present and how to put the country on a glide path to many fewer guns in public circulation.